Meatpacking giant Smithfield Foods is suing the United Food and
Commercial Workers, the union that many Smithfield workers have chosen
to represent them in their unionizing efforts at the company.

According to a press release from the union, the company's lawsuit
was filed this past week under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations (RICO) Act, legislation originally designed to tackle
organized crime syndicates.

The company appears to be claiming that the union's efforts to
build community support for the Smithfield workers in a campaign to win
recognition for their union amounts to extortion.

The union counters that the company's violations
against workers at its Tar Heel, North Carolina, plant are well
documented in public records, including illegally firing, intimidating,
assaulting, using racial epithets and spying on workers.

The union also points to administrative law court rulings on
Smithfield's violations of labor laws and to a report authored by
internationally respected Human Rights Watch documenting systematic abuse by the company against its workers.

Additionally, at its Wilson facility, the company engaged in similar
misconduct to suppress workers from attaining union representation. The
company has also been cited and fined by the EPA and the North Carolina
Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

According to the union's press release:

"It is more than ironic that Smithfield now wants to turn to the law to
shield its abusive conduct from public exposure. The company action
constitutes hypocrisy of the highest order, seeking to hide behind a
frivolous lawsuit that also targets community and religious leaders for
advocating on behalf of Smithfield's Tar Heel workers."

The union views the lawsuit as the company's latest attempt to
suppress the rights of working people to petition the government for
redress of grievances and to suppress their rights to free association
and speech by informing the public about abuse at Smithfield plants.

Additionally, because many supporters of the workers at Smithfield
have decided to either refrain from buying Smithfield's meat and pork
products (such as bacon) until the company agrees to recognize the
workers collective bargaining rights or to inform stores that carry
Smithfield's products about the problems in the company's plants, the
company's lawsuit is retaliatory measure meant to "prevent consumers
from learning about the working conditions that exist where products
they buy are produced."

Smithfield workers themselves have not actually called for a boycott of the company's products.

The company, in conjunction with numerous right-wing,
anti-union and anti-worker organizations, has launched a smear campaign
against national, state, and local public officials, religious and
community leaders who support the cause of justice at Smithfield's Tar
Heel plant.

The union says, "It is truly shameful that Smithfield is willing to
spend millions of dollars on high-priced lawyers and frivolous lawsuits
rather than committing the resources needed to provide basic safety and
health improvements for Tar Heel workers. "

There is nothing substantive in the lawsuit, says the union, except
for being a tactic in Smithfield's aggressive campaign "to ensure that
only the voices of the powerful are heard."

The union vowed to continue to struggle on behalf of the workers at Smithfield who have sought its representation.